ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, 15 May 2004 — Prisoners released from Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison yesterday complained of being hung by their hands from walls for hours and humiliated by grinning American guards.

One prisoner said two American soldiers had sex in front of him in the complex’s hospital wing and another said he saw wires attached to the tongue and genitals of a cousin who was also being held.

The former inmates were part of a batch of some 315 prisoners freed from the jail at the center of the prisoner abuse scandal, a day after a visit by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The first busload left the complex, west of Baghdad, at 9:20 a.m. (0520 GMT) and without stopping and passed about 100 people waiting outside, according to an AFP correspondent.

The bus, flanked by US jeeps, arrived 30 minutes later at a base of the US-trained paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) at Al-Amiriya on the western outskirts of Baghdad, where some of the detainees were set free. Other busloads were taken elsewhere in the country.

Speaking to reporters after he got off of the bus at Al-Amiriya, Abu Mustafa, 24, said he was arrested 10 months ago by US forces who accused him of being a leader of a terrorist group. “They kept me in solitary confinement for six days,” he said. “They hung me by my hands from the wall for five hours.

Mohammed Zadian, 45, said he was detained for four months and also hung from a wall by his hands for hours while he was “asked to confess that I attacked the American forces”.

He added: “I saw them attach electric wires to the tongue and the genitals of my cousin. They also used to give me a box of food and made me carry it around for six hours without putting it down.”

Mohammed Khazal Al-Moussawi, 31, who was held for eight months, said he went into the prison weighing 117 kilos, and came out more than 30 kilos lighter. “One of the soldiers told the prisoners that if it was in his hands, he would kill all the Iraqis,” he said.

Another man, Muthani Mahmoud Salim, 25, from Baghdad, said they would target sheikhs being held. “They used to dress them like woman and tour the prison and the soldiers used to laugh and joke at them,” he said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of US military operations, announced Wednesday that 315 prisoners would be released Friday, with another release set for a week later. The US-led coalition has embarked on a prisoner release policy to try to reduce numbers by half to fewer than 2,000, according to officials.

Photographs showing violent and sexual abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib have shocked the world and prompted calls for Rumsfeld to take responsibility by resigning.

On a snap visit here Thursday, Rumsfeld toured the prison and admitted that the humiliation of some of the detainees held since the start of the March 2003 invasion had dealt a major blow to his country.